Foreign Languages

College Majors Musical Theater Major
1

<p>DD is a rising sophomore who is committed to majoring in MT. As an honors student she began taking German in 7th grade, and she'd planned to take AP German as a Junior. This year, she has a conflict with the select women's choir (by audition) and honors German 4. She is considering abandoning German and taking up French. This would give her 3 years of German and 3 years of French prior to college.</p>

<p>How will universities view this ? I was under the impression they wanted to see a commitment to one foreign language and taking it all the way through the AP level.</p>

<p>Thanks for your comments and opinions.</p>

2

<p>I think she will be perfectly fine with this. You can always explain to the college that there was a conflict in her schedule too.</p>

3

<p>To be admitted to college as an MT major, none of my son’s schools required more than 3years of a single language to satisfy their requirements for an academic admittance (S took 3 years of French). Also, the AP exam in that language wasn’t required either, unless he wanted to receive college credit for the language. In fact, I think most colleges only require 2 years of a foreign language for academic admittance. The foreign language credits would have no bearing on an artistic admittance to an MT program. It seems like your daughter has more than enough foreign language credits at this point. I’d say go for select woman’s choir for the vocal experience and to add to her resume later on – any long-term performance involvement will exemplify her commitment to the performing arts.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for you replies. We are still trying to work this out with the guidance counselor.</p>

5

<p>Daughter took 5 years of Latin and the AP exam, chose to sit for a Latin placement exam at orientation this summer. Net result? She got credit hours as an elective for the AP work (they credited it as a poetry course…) and placed into 300 Level Latin, should she decide she wants to take more in college…not likely with her schedule/MT requirements. Her school/program doesn’t require language during college (some, especially BM programs, may). Good luck with scheduling!</p>

6

<p>I have check with several very good program heads - they all agree, for their schools at least, that three years of one foreign language is sufficient.</p>

7

<p>A beautifully written letter of recommendation from my daughter’s select choir director is what (I believe) ultimately got her taken off the wait-list and accepted to her dream school.</p>

8

<p>My daughter only had 2 years of French and made it into NYU - she did have lots of years of general choirs and was in 2 years of show choir.</p>

9

<p>We tried, but there was no way to fit both the choir and German 4 into her schedule. DD is going to drop German and take French this year. She plans to pick German back up in her Jr. and Sr. years.</p>

<p>Thanks for all of your replies.</p>